Albus takes Action
by DumbledoreDude
Summary: Albus Dumbledore has finally understood that Harry won't stand a chance against Voldemort. Fed up with "pushing from behind", Albus decides he has to take matters into his own hands.


Dumbledore opened his eyes. Then blinked. And blinked again. Had it worked? Every part of his body ached, but after all, that must mean he was alive. And feeling aches was hardly surprising, he had just fallen backwards off the Astronomy tower.

But there was no time to lose. If anyone saw him lying there, alive, the game would be up. There was of course nobody outside at this time of night, but he had to expect the Death Eaters to make their escape as soon as possible. Ignoring the complaints of his centenarian body, he stood up, and took out from inside his robes a lump of shining, silvery cloth, impossibly soft to his hands. As he did so, he suddenly noticed that his previously blackened and rotting hand now seemed as good as before the accident. He had hoped for this result, but not dared to expect it.

He covered himself in the invisibility cloak, and took out his wand, the elder wand. The next part of the plan would to any other be an impossible feat of magic, but to him, Albus Dumbledore, possibly the greatest wizard who ever lived, it was no great achievement.

Pointing the wand at a small rock lying close to where he fell, he started to focus his efforts. He warped and transfigured the stone to a degree previously unrecorded in magical history. Not only skin, bones, hair, and robes; even sinews, muscles, arteries, and organs. And most important was the face, this now transfigured stone needed to look like an exact copy. Anyone who now looked where the rock had previously lain, even those who had known him well, would now swear to see the deceased Professor Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore laying before them.

He finished up by taking out the locket they had captured. When first picking it up he had known that it wasn't a Horcrux. There wasn't the clear sense of dark magic about it, the kind he had felt from the ring and traces of in the diary. He opened it, and was surprised to find a message:

To the Dark Lord I now I will be dead long before you read this but I want you to know that it was I who discovered your secret. I have stolen the real Horcrux and intend to destroy it as soon as I can. I face death in the hope that when you meet your match you will be mortal once more. R.A.B.

He stored this message away in his memory, closing the locket and placing it inside the robes of his copy lying on the ground.

He then grabbed another small pebble and turned it into a portkey. Not travelling far yet, he transported himself to the lowest roof nearby, where he could sit in peace and contemplate the situation. He was tired. while the physical effects of the terrible potion he had drunk earlier seemed to have disappeared, his mind was still extremely tired, and there was a lot to think about. He also needed to make sure that the brilliant piece of transfiguration lying below him was accepted as his corpse. If anyone of magical proficiency tried to tamper with the creation, they would quickly discover the act of deceit. He could only hope that Minerva and the other teachers would have enough respect not to do any of the sort, and also to keep it from ministry hands.

From his vantage point he could see the false body just below him, and in the distance; Hagrid's house. He watched Severus lead Draco and the other Death Eaters past the house and towards the exit. Harry was running after them like a complete fool, screaming curses so simple and obvious that Severus probably blocked them without even thinking. Harry was left lying the dirt, disarmed and looking for his glasses and wand, while the Death Eaters disapparated just outside the gates.

Harry, harry, harry. Foolish and naive. Albus had been optimistic when Harry first came to Hogwarts. He had seemed wildly interested in magic, and exited at the prospect of studying at Hogwarts, like any young student should be. He had turned out to be honest, friendly, and brave, the latter of which he proved facing the troll at the Halloween feast. These were better qualities than he could have hoped for the one who was destined to defeat Voldemort. But there was a problem which undermined all of these other great qualities: Harry proved to be severely incompetent in all forms of magical exercises. And this was a big problem. Friendliness and honesty simply would and could never defeat The Dark Lord. And bravery without skill was just foolhardiness.

At the usual staff meeting right before the exam season, he had asked his staff how Harry was coming along in his magical education. This of course was of vital importance for "The Chosen One" and his odds of defeating Voldemort. But Albus had been shocked by the response from the teachers. After a year at Hogwarts, the best magical learning institution in the world, Harry had seemed to learn almost no useful magical skills. He performed well under average in every class. He had problems grasping even the most rudimentary spells in charms and transfiguration, and if there were more than two potion ingredients he always added them in the wrong order. Albus had had difficulty hiding his disappointment from his staff, telling them he was certain Harry would improve the next years and live up to their expectations.

For a moment he just watched the people who were now approaching his dead copy. A few of his staff, and some of Harry's cute little organization from last year. They all looked horrified. Minerva and Flitwick seemed to be on the verge of tears. He felt a stab of guilt for doing this to them, but it was necessary. It all had to be believable. Lights were going on in the castle behind him; there were voices as the students, woken up by the struggles, made their way outside to see what was going on. He saw Harry talking to Hagrid in the distance, helping him put out the fire. At least he knew a basic water spell.

He had had great hopes for the boy. He was the child of Lily and James, both of whom were excellent in the magical arts, he was included in such a powerful prophecy, and he seemed so determined to avenge the murder of his parents. But his determination seemed to completely disappear at the sight of a book or a quill. Then he turned lazy, content, and unwilling to improve. "The chosen one". Albus could do nothing but snort at the title. Harry was only chosen for one thing: To be a massive letdown and disappointment.

Harry hadn't, of course, improved over the years. As it was, Albus was surprised he had even survived so far. He had received his share of challenges, most of which he had overcome thanks to his friends and his dumb luck. The first year he had tried to get the Philosopher's stone before Quirrel, already showing extreme levels of idiocy. He would not have gotten trough a single of the challenges had it not been for his friend Granger. And what had he expected to be able to achieve meeting a teacher down there? Stick his wand up his nose? It was sheer dumb luck that Quirrel for some reason tried to grab him instead of just killing him on the spot.

And of course, in his second year, after discovering the Chamber of Secrets, why hadn't he gone to a competent teacher like Minerva or Severus? He had entered the chamber alone and without any tools that could help him defeat a deadly 60-foot basilisk - certainly the limit of stupidity that anyone could go to. If Albus hadn't asked Fawkes to help keep the students safe in his absence, The Boy who Lived would certainly have been stone dead.

Harry's third year was so riddled with stupid mistakes that Albus couldn't even bring himself to think about it. Severus reminded Remus in the Shrieking Shack that he hadn't taken his Wolfsbane potion; how could they ALL forget? And why didn't they knock Pettigrew unconscious, it should have been obvious to them all how easy it would be for a rat to escape in the dark night.

In his fourth year, Harry had once again been saved from certain death at Godric's Hollow by sheer luck. The wands connecting? Once again, a situation where Harry should have been done for. Perhaps "The Boy who Lucked Out" was the most fitting title of this inexplicably stupid boy. Last year he had even escaped Hogwarts in another attempt to fulfill his obvious death wish. He had almost achieved Voldemort's plan, as well as getting Sirius killed.

He looked down again, as if waking from his deep thoughts, and was touched to see a great crowd gathered around his body, Harry crouching over it. He, Albus, had done his best, he thought, being kind and supportive towards anyone over the years since his sister Ariana's death. He had not killed anyone, and not gone off in a continued hunt for power, instead devoting himself to the betterment of the wizarding world. But where had this noble behaviour got them? Voldemort was on the rise, unchallenged by the disorganized Ministry, and there seemed to be no-one willing and able to stop him.

For the longest while his plan had actually been to let himself die. This was in order to give Severus the full trust of Voldemort, and to give Harry the opportunity to destroy the Horcruxes and kill him. But, as he watched the boy severely underperforming in almost every skill needed for a great wizard able to beat Voldemort, he had come to a different conclusion. Which was; Harry was simply not up to the task. He now knew what he should have realized much, much earlier: The only witch or wizard able to defeat the Dark Lord, was himself. Just like he had been the only one able to defeat Grindelwald, this task would have to come to him.

And he had now the power to do what had previously seemed impossible, he had the power that himself and Grindelwald had longed for so much in their younger days. He only now had the power to do what he knew was truly for the Greater Good of the wizarding world. For he, Albus Dumbledore, was now the ruler of all the three Deathly Hallows, and they answered to him alone. Voldemort would have to be stopped, and he alone had the power to do it.

Dumbledore still sat on the edge of the low roof, not far from where the crowd had gathered around the fake body. He noted with satisfaction that the teachers allowed nobody to come near the body. If the teachers, his closest friends and expert wizards and witches, didn't think the body was fake, then nobody would. And if they didn't let students near the body, then they would certainly not allow any nosy Ministry people to examine it too closely either, out of respect for him. Minerva somberly covered the body with a blanket and Flitwick levitated it inside. The students started to follow. He felt safe now that nobody would not discover the deceit, after all, there was no reason for them to expect it, and the imitation was extremely well done.

At his realization that he would have to be the one to defeat Voldemort, he also realized that he could no longer play fairly. Honesty, trust, friendliness, look where it had gotten them. To the edge of the cliff, about to fall into complete Death Eater control. He could not let that happen. The problem, of course, was his hand. He knew it would kill him before long, Severus had told him as much. That was why he had planned to have himself be killed by Severus, it was the best option available. But then he had realized; the ring that had given him the deadly injury had also presented the solution; the Resurrection Stone.

And thus the plan had formed. On their way back from the cave, he had acted on it. As they landed on the Astronomy Tower, he knew he didn't have much time. Before Harry knew what was happening, Albus had knocked him unconscious, that is; gave him an artificial "coma" so that he couldn't move nor know or observe what was happening until the spell was deactivated. He then grabbed Harry's cloak and wand, and cast a powerful disillusionment charm on him. The Master of Death had just stored the Elder Wand and the Cloak of Invisibility safely inside his robes, where he already had the Resurrection Stone, and held Harry's wand in his hand when Draco had appeared and disarmed him.

Draco's plan was of course ridiculous. If he wanted to try to kill him, the only way would be trough surprise, when he was not prepared. Putting up a huge Dark Mark above the school sort of ruined any element of surprise. Not to mention the fact that Draco's magic was so weak, Albus could have easily disarmed him even wandless. But that would not serve a purpose. For Voldemort to come out of hiding, everyone would have to think Albus was dead. That included Severus, whose job it was to kill him, which he promptly did when Draco wasn't up to the task.

The Death Curse had actually been a pain-free experience. He had wondered more than once if he would resurrect and then instantly die from the damage his body had sustained upon hitting the ground after the fall, or indeed be resurrected while in the fall and then smash against the ground, but thankfully, neither was the case. It seemed that the resurrection stone took such things into account, restoring the body in a safe and stable condition. At his momentary death the spells he had put upon Harry would have disappeared, and Harry would have been confused, but forced to conclude that the Death Eaters were the ones to curse him, take his cloak, and kill Dumbledore.

Everything had gone according to plan, and according to his best hopes. It didn't seem like any student had been harmed, and the news that Albus Dumbledore himself was dead would soon be announced throughout the wizarding world. As Hagrid and the last of the students walked slowly and solemnly back inside, Albus modified the small pebble portkey in his pocket again. He had his own business to attend to. Voldemort would soon feel the effect of having the greatest wizard the world had ever seen, the Master of Death, on his heels.

Author's Notes:

Thanks for reading! What you all think of this setup; is this a story you would want to see continued? My motivation for writing this is basically seeing so many stories that criticize Dumbledore, and wanting to write a story where he acts like the clever and powerful wizard he is, and where he is a little more proactive.

There will hopefully be more action going forwards; this was basically just a prologue featuring Dumbledore sitting on a roof recollecting his train of thoughts regarding Harry, and the happenings regarding how Dumbledore got hold of the invisibility cloak and how he managed to fool everyone into thinking he's dead.

Let me know what you think, all constructive criticism is appreciated.

\- Dude


End file.
